Patriot Act: Stand up, Senate

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, December 15, 2005

Members of the U.S. Senate have a perfect opportunity to stand up against a power-grasping administration and to stand up for the protection of individual liberties by rejecting the proposed extension of the U.S.A. Patriot Act.

The renewal of the act sailed through the House Wednesday. Forty-four Democrats acquiesced to administration and Republican pressure to ram through the extension in time for a holiday adjournment. To their credit, no one in the Washington state Democratic delegation was among them.

It's instructive to note that opposition to the extension came from some of the chamber's most liberal and conservative members.

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So it falls to the Senate to apply the brakes.

The original legislation was passed all too quickly amid the near panic following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But even in their terrorism-driven anxiety, members of Congress had the foresight to sunset the act's provisions, so that they could be reviewed under less stressful conditions.

It would seem better to impose a three-month extension on those provisions and then carefully reanalyze them in the New Year than to be once again panicked into unconsidered action.

Several prominent Republican senators have joined in opposing this rush to judgment. Democrats are threatening a filibuster.

We realize that it may seem politically risky going into mid-term elections appearing anything but true-blue and tough on terrorism. But then, true patriots aren't swayed by political risk.